Our LGBTQ community has an extraordinary legacy of turning adversity into creativity and self expression. On YouTube, we’ve seen LGBTQ creators use their voices to share their stories, their art, their music, and their passions to help shift culture, increase visibility, and create change. We are so proud of the contributions you have made to the platform; you've helped make YouTube what it is today.

Over the past few days, we’ve heard many questions around monetization and how ads are served against videos by LGBTQ creators. We know this has been both confusing and painful, and want you to know that we hear you. YouTube is an open platform and we support the free expression of creators with a wide range of views. But we don’t allow paid advertising that disparages people based on who they are and we remove ads that violate this basic principle.

We also want to tell the world how proud we are of LGBTQ creators and our broader community. We hope you'll join us in celebrating everyone who’s #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth. From vogue to ballet, home videos to fine art, electropop to piano, Olympic ice skating to skateboarding, creative self-expression has proven to have the power to change the world.

All of these creators use their art and expression to imagine a better future, and in doing so, help create one. Keep your eye out for even more stories on our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram. What are you #ProudToCreate?

Posted by Ariel, Devon, and Victor on behalf of YouTube’s LGBTQ Employee Resource Group